Southern's Mike Fridge hails from Inverness, while visiting coach Pete Smith is from Auchtermuchty, which is in the old kingdom of Fife.
Fridge will be very keen to start the new year with competition points, since a loss could send Southern hurtling down to the ASB Premiership cellar.
Southern, with an identical goal difference of -6, has played one game more than Waikato-BOP, which lags three points behind in bottom place.
Ever the optimist, Fridge points out that a win can push his team up into mid-table, and if early-season form can be recaptured, Southern is more than capable of kick-starting the second half of the season.
''It's pretty tight in mid-table, with only four competition points covering six teams, so we have everything to play for,'' Fridge said.
Yet, not for the first time, Southern has a diminished squad to choose from, since no fewer than six regular first-choice players are not available tomorrow.
Nick Hindson returned from Auckland with food poisoning, Matt Joy is still recovering from a long-term knee injury, David Hayman is overseas, and during this week's three training sessions, Morgan Day, Mike Neaverson and Josh Stewart hobbled off.
''We will still field a more than competitive team,'' Fridge said.
''We need to recapture our early-season form, when we kept a compact team shape, did not give the ball away, and supported our attacks with pace.
''Not conceding daft goals would also help. Twice we have let goals in during the first minute. Also in one match we conceded two goals within a minute through lack of concentration, and so far this season we have conceded four penalties.''
Certainly Fridge will hope for a better result against the visiting team this season.
Waikato-BOP emerged as a bogey side that hammered 10 goals past Southern in two matches last year.
Striker Nick Robson scored four goals in a crushing 6-1 win in Dunedin and in the away game, two Southern goals were not enough and a 4-2 loss was registered.
Visiting coach Smith revealed his humorous side when commenting on the style his side was aiming to play.
''Obviously everyone would like to play like Barcelona - playing it from the back, through the midfield - and if we had Messi and Iniesta we would probably do the same, but unfortunately they've knocked back the offers that we've sent them,'' Smith said.
''So we'll play a style and a form of play that will be dictated by the strength of the players that we've got on board, and that will get the most effective results in terms of winning games.''
